E nights offensive?

[skoi]

SOG guests used to be included in EMH-- I checked before I reserved the first time. I don't know why they aren't in the evening thing-- might have something to do with the way the bus transportation runs.

Julie

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

That wouldn't make sense for it to be a transportation issue--to exclude just one on-property facility...and then include the Hilton--technically not on-property? Now that would be offensive!

 

[MouseClubMom]

The Hilton is on property - just not owned by Disney. Disney owns the land the Hilton and the other hotels on Hotel Plaza Blvd sit on but leases the land out to the properties. They do not own the buildings - just the land.

MCMom

 

[dgaston]

And it is a transportation issue for the Hilton. They must contract extra bus service to bring people to the parks early, or in the most recent trial, to get them home late. The other Downtown Disney hotels don't participate in EMH, but may in Enights.

 

[Schmeck]

About Universal allowing all resort guests to "cut to the front of the line", so to speak...

How many guest rooms does Universal have compared to WDW? If all WDW guests were allowed unlimited Fastpass, the Fastpass line would be just as long as the stand-by, I'd bet!

 

[disneyjunkie]

Originally posted by skoi
SOG guests used to be included in EMH-- I checked before I reserved the first time. I don't know why they aren't in the evening thing-- might have something to do with the way the bus transportation runs.

Julie

0

When the dates for the test run of EMH were released, someone posted here that SOG wasn't included because the fees involved with running extra buses.

Since the budget had already been set SOG couldn't add in
the extra cost. The other resorts (non disney) had to pay a fee for bus service for their resort guest. Someone posted that if Disney kept the new EMH hours, SOG would be able to add the extra transportation into it's new budget.


This MIGHT explain why SOG didn't take part.

 

[Sammie]

Originally posted by Lisa loves Pooh
That wouldn't make sense for it to be a transportation issue--to exclude just one on-property facility...and then include the Hilton--technically not on-property? Now that would be offensive!

The nonDisney hotels that particpate pay to do so. It is up to them if they wish to participate.

 

[minmate]

Originally posted by Lisa loves Pooh
[I like USF idea of having on sight guests get to jump to the head of all the lines--now that is a cool benefit. [/B]

I AGREE! But then again, they only have THREE resorts compared to what, 18 or whatever Disney has? If that many people were going to the FOL, the front of the line wouldn't exactly be the "Front" -- the wait would be shorter probably, but still --- not the same as at USF.

 

[coliebird]

Originally posted by minmate


I AGREE! But then again, they only have THREE resorts compared to what, 18 or whatever Disney has? If that many people were going to the FOL, the front of the line wouldn't exactly be the "Front" -- the wait would be shorter probably, but still --- not the same as at USF.

Exactly! I don't think people take that into consideration when they complain that Disney does not do front of the line access. With 20 or so hotels, front of the line access for all guests would be pretty hard to accomodate.

 

[ChuckGA]

I have to genrally agree with the OP. I think that MK should be open to midnight every night from the Friday before Memorial Day to the Sunday before Labor Day, obviating the need for E-night. Also we did E-night twice in June 2003. The first night everything was 25-30 minutes waiting and was crowded. The second night was 10-15 minutes of waiting but that was because it was raining. We won't be doing E-night again.

If they want to give the resort guests some extra perk, which I am all for, then make EMH become EMH+1/2, open at 7:30am in the summer time and open the whole dang park, not just a few select rides.

Chuck

 

[Banzai]

I see nothing wrong with the program. $12 dollars was well worth it for the short lines on rides that you would normally be in queue for at least ten min.

 

[EsmeraldaX]

Originally posted by bravesfan92
I've got a friend that just returned the weekend before Memorial Day. They stayed at Pop Century and she said they waited over 40 minutes before they finally got on a bus. She said it took 1-1/2 hours to get out of the MK after they closed and back to Pop Century. So, I am really dreading that during the week of the 4th of July.

This is why we rent a car. Face it, busses take long, and you are not guaranteed a seat. As for only resort guests being guaranteed seats, would you prefer to see an off site pregnant woman or little old man with a cane with a park hopper ticket have to stand???

Come on. Busses are not the most pleasent form of transport ANYWHERE. Not just at WDW. You are being given transportation as part of your on site stay , or your purchase of a hopper pass.

If you choose to wait for a bus instead of driving, you can either wait for a bus that is more to your liking crowd wise, or you can ride squished. Certain people should be given priority to seats but not based upon where they choose to stay for a hotel. Pregnant women, people with canes, crutches, small children they are holding, the elderly, people with bad legs/feet or other ailments should be given the priority for seats. Regardless of who they are or where they are staying.

Some people stay off site because they have large groups and want to rent a reasonably priced condo or suite. Some people have time shares or vacation homes. Some people can't afford it. But for whoever said staying offsite is always less expensive, I'm sorry but you are wrong. Last time I stayed offsite, I was lucky enough to have a time share I paid $700 for the week for. Then add in $200 for a car. That's $900 right there. POP is $77 a night during the value season (which was when I went), that equals $539 for 7 days. I'd imagine that there are many places offsite with high hotel rates.

Sorry to vent but I'm just really sick and tired of hearing people whine and complain about the busses and cost of WDW. If you don't like the busses, look for a deal on a rental car. We rented last time and we will always rent from now on. The extra cost is worth it to us. If you don't like the cost of the hotels, go during a value season, or look for a special deal on an offsite.

If you don't like the lines for rides in the parks, use fastpass. I have never had a wait longer than 20 minutes ever since FP was put into place and I go during moderate to low crowd times.

And all the folks who say "well I'm going to just go to Universal instead" just keep in mind that the stuff you loved about disney is not there. It's like comparing apples to oranges. They're both theme parks, sure. But they are not the same.

 

[Mike]

Originally posted by mmccoy
We attended e-ride on Memorial Day evening, 9-12. The only ride with a line was Space Mountain - 15-20 minutes. While four of us went to SM, my DW and DS5 rode Buzz Lightyear five times. Earlier in the day, we waited 30-40 minutes stand-by.

Later, while four of us rode Thunder Mountain RR 3X in a row, my DW and DS5 rode Pooh and Peter Pan until the CMs began referring to my son by name.

At 12:15, as the park closed, we sat in front of Cinderella's Castle, along with three or four other people, and got our goodnight kiss. No crowds, no clean-up noise. Now, that was magical.

Best $12 I've ever spent.

???? Sounds like you spent $72 (for your family of 6)- not $12. And I think that is the point that some of the earlier posters were trying to make - it adds up for a family.

My experience - I went to one E-night in May 2000 and we were pretty much able to walk onto everything. My mom watched the kids back at the hotel so it was very relaxing for my wife and I. I didn't know what it was like to be in the parks without pushing a stroller. Under those circumstances, I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Since I've been reading these boards, I have always read very different opinions about E-nights and crowd levels. They almost seem to be hit or miss from a crowd standpoint. But, as has already been mentioned, it is an optional event. You don't have to pay the money if you do not agree with the concept.

 

[phamton]

Originally posted by Lisa loves Pooh


USF charges extra for HHN (not sure for Mardi Gras and such)...


I like USF idea of having on sight guests get to jump to the head of all the lines--now that is a cool benefit.

They do charge extra for HHN but not Mardi Gras. But they also have annual passholder events after hours like the 8:00 PM to midnight opening of the park for passholders to preview the Mummy. It was free for passholders (guests were $20) and was 8 different nights. The only night it was crowded was the first night. On the other nights the lines were very short, practically a walk on for Shrek, Twister, and Jimmy Neutron.

I don't think WDW will ever be able to do FOTL for hotel guests. Too many people stay onsite at Disney.

 

[JKanownik]

About 95% of the E-night reviews I've read have been positive and it seems like the few bad reviews were from a couple of nights where they raised the 5000 ticket limit. The 5000 ticket limit is not an official Disney number, so based on what I've read it makes perfect sense to assume that Disney raised the limit a couple of times to see what would happen.

I'm on board with the fact that E-nights was the best $12 I've ever spent at WDW and I was just there in May when they were testing the "free" 3 hour EMH evenings (the crowds that I experienced during the evening EMH were much worse than people have been saying they experienced).

Along the lines of what other people have been saying, leaving the entire park open longer hours for free isn't an option because of the economics involved. This simply isn't an option. If they extend the hours you are going to pay one way or the other, whether its in higher hotel rates, higher food costs or higher general admission.

It is possible that the evening EMH test will prove succesful and evening EMH will become a standard offering, but it will not be free. You will pay for it in a combination of increased crowds and increased hotel rates (most likely due to discounts that are currently offered going away).

In looking at the $12 cost for E-nights on an individual basis, you need to take into account the entire economics of a trip to WDW. If I take a 7 day trip to WDW and buy a 7 day park hopper, it would be false to say that it costs me $48 (7 day park hopper cost/7) a day to expererience the parks. Along with my park hopper plus I also pay for plane tickets to Orlando, transportation from the airport to WDW, a hotel room and I pay a premium for food while I'm down there. Over the length of the stay my park time ends up costing me $169 a day, or over $13 an hour! Yes I get other things while I'm there, but it is the park time that I'm going for. So when look at the $4 an hour you pay for E-nights, and consider that the E-nights are at night when the park is most magical and lines are usually non-existent, you can see where I am coming from when I say it is a bargain.

If there is any reason to complain about E-nights, its the fact that Disney does not guarantee the limited admission of 5,000 people. Without that guarantee there is the chance that they will raise the admission limit and that lines will be longer as a result. However, unless the $4/hour lines are significantly longer than the $13/hr lines during the day (which would never happen because even in the negative reviews of E-nights the wait times were still much shorter than they were during the day), E-nights are still a bargain.

Finally, I'll say what I always say when people complain that they are being gouged by a public company: buy their stock! But in this case I can assure you that any Disney shareholders will tell you that Disney is not making as much money off of you as you think they are.

-Josh

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I was not suggesting that Disney offer FOTL for resort guests..obviously that would be a problem. I simply stated that was a cook perk that onsight USF guests receive but do not pay an extra amount of money to utilize.

As far as the EMH--the morning one is free--so there is no reason it cannot be free later in the day. Disney has not published the numbers from the test run--but if they make enough profit to cover the extra hours via souvenir, food, and drink sales--then that covers the cost of keeping it open. If however, there are not enough in park sales--then that would justify the extra $12 to cover operating expenses (and pad the profits ). Additionally--you cannot take advantage of E-nights unless you have a multi-day or annual pass or a day ticket for the MK on that particular day. So if you only bought a one day pass--you have payed almost $70pp for a day at the MK.

Perhaps when the kids are older--we might take advantage of E-nights--but for now--we will stick to non-crowded times and take advantage of "free" disney perks that are covered by the higher priced accomodations.

As far as busses---we LOVE those bus rides (except when there were some cursing kids on their way to DTD and PI once--that was NOT a fun ride). DDs love them--to them it is just another ride at disney. In fact--we use it as a ride when we go to stay and play at the hotels and do without the parks on a visit. Nothing says you have to hit the bus line at peak time--hang out and enjoy the magic for up to an hour after the park closes--they won't kick you out for at least that long while everyone finishes up their shopping.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

sorry--cool perk instead of cook perk...boy do I need spell check on these boards

 

[donnajon]

Hey, MMCCOY, we must have been at the castle with you at 12:15 on Memorial Day E-night watching the kiss goodnight together. A CM told my husband that they only sold 20% of available tickets that night.We loved it and had a great time! Not only were there no lines, it wasn't so blame hot!!!
We decided this trip to take our car to the parks instead of the busses and I must say, I really enjoyed it so much more. Now, this may have to do with the fact that we brought a stroller for our DD19mos and didn't have to fold it up along with watching DD7, DD4 and having a diaper and camera bag! Plus, we got to the parks when they opened so we always got good parking spaces - never needed the trams. I doubt we'll use the busses again.